Lessons of the Locker Room

Sports builds character is a truism rarely questioned by Americans. Most parents encourage their children to take part in competitive athletics, and organized team sports are available to young people from the early years of grammar school through high school and college. Occasionally some disturbing incidents cast doubt on the assumption that sport is necessarily beneficial to character development: a serious injury on the playing field due to gratuitous violence, drug use, gambling, or sexual misconduct. Whole communities have wondered how organized team sports, supposedly designed to build character, can lead to such drastic deviations from the imagined ideals.In Lessons of the Locker Room, anthropologist Andrew W. Miracle Jr. and sociologist C. Roger Rees explore the fascinating underpinnings of school sports and examine the evidence to support the prevailing assumption that sport is an ennobling experience. They find that participation has little effect on positive character development. Far from building model citizens, their research shows that competitive team sports may foster selfish motives and antisocial behavior. Rather than learning self-sacrifice and dedication, athletes often pick up the message that winning isn't everything - it's the only thing.. . . an excellent supplementary text in undergraduate courses in the sociology of sport or the sociology of education. It also could serve to raise the consciousness of educational reformers and activist citizens. And, it is a valuable resource for academicians who are concerned about the role of sport in society but who do not maintain a research interest in the field. -The Association for the Study of Play. . . it belongs in the library of all sport sociologists interested in the realtionships between sport and education. The book is a good example of functional analysis and might well be assigned to graduate classes in sport sociology and physical education. Educators pondering the future of sport in their schools would also be well advised to read it. -Sociology of Sport Journal